IT'S not often Andy Johnson gets upstaged but marvellous Micah Richards managed it with a spectacular overhead kick to snatch a point.

Manchester City's teenage defender finished with unbelievable skill as he twisted in mid-air to send a shot in off the bar with the last blast of the game.

Richards celebrated in style too, with an acrobatic somersault, and the amazing strike from Georgios Samaras's knock-down was ultimately deserved by Stuart Pearce's side.

Pearce beamed: "Credit to the team. They have given a lot of spirit. We've played better and got nothing, but we showed a bit more stickability.

"I didn't think Micah played that well, but he is a handful. He could jump up and head the moon and his finish was a very good one."

David Moyes's men had been holding ' on grimly to Johnson's sixth goal of the season. The manager says he is not a one-man team, but his star signing's form suggests otherwise.

Ironically Johnson had just been subbed - to waste a bit of time - when City made the late breakthrough.

Samaras had hit a post minutes earlier and City were worth a point -even if their young boss boobed with his tactics.

Moyes was a mixture of fed-up and philosophical. He said: "It happens sometimes in football. We had chances for the second goal but because we didn't take them we came under a lot of pressure late on.

"We were relatively comfortable, we had played well enough and it looked as if we had seen it out."

Pearce chose to pack his midfield and drop a striker - a brave but rash move that gave them little threat until he made changes.

There wasn't much threat from James Beattie, either. The Everton striker is labouring, his confidence is shot and the fans are starting to turn on him. When his standards drop he is an easy - and large -target.

Beattie did have the ball in the net but had clearly barged into Sylvain Distin before his excellent finish beat Nicky Weaver.

Johnson dumped Distin on his backside more legitimately to give Beattie another chance but his scuffed shot was just scrambled away.

Johnson was rewarded for his enthusiasm and drive just before half-time when he connected with a sweet Phil Neville cross for a goal of sheer simplicity.

The shot took a deflection off Distin but was going in anyway and suddenly City's game-plan looked flawed.

Leon Osman then smashed a shot that Weaver parried before the keeper stretched to stop Steve Ireland from the horror of a freakish own goal.

The game opened up and Didi Hamann came forward to curl a drive wide, the first attempt City had managed, in the 52nd minute.

Pearce sent on Bernardo Corradi to give Samaras a hand up front but Everton should have been clear when Johnson set up Mikel Arteta for a fizzing ten-yarder that Weaver pushed out and the in-form striker was denied on the rebound as Richard Dunne used his body to block on the line.

City then missed a glorious chance to equalise when Tim Howard punched a Joey Barton up-and-under feebly to Samaras but the Greek rolled his effort wide.

Joleon Lescott's header was tipped over by Weaver and Tim Cahill was inches away as Everton found surprising freedom at corners.

City improved with the arrival of DaMarcus Beasley and the American was tripped by Cahill on the edge of the box as he burst through.

Richards was also howling for a spot-kick when he grappled with Osman on a charge forward.

Corradi almost took advantage of a linesman's mistake when he ran through offside only to fire hopelessly wide. There would have been uproar if he had scored.

Samaras kept the drama going until injury-time when his deflected shot came back off the face of the wood and Trevor Sinclair blazed over.

But, as a delighted and relieved Pearce probably realised last night, it might have been a far better idea for City to have gone for it from the off and not leave their effort so late.